When you are in an agency you can store cases both to come back to work on them or to have others help you with them. The max files for the different size buildings is how many you can have in the files at once per detective.

Agencies should be:

helping out member detectives with case work, and the crime lab
roleplaying on the message boards
the equipment locker to change gear during cases at home
treasure hunting
teaching and helping newer detectives grow thier skills

Every agency has a home city, but you can travel the Sleuth world and still be part of the agency. Not all functions of the agency will be available to you when you are traveling however.

Any agency should be willing to help out a new detective with funding for traveling and to help them get equiped to better tackle their cases.

1) You don't have to be in the same city but you won't be able to join all facilities if you're not.

2) When you're in agency you're able to store away cases you opened. The amount of cases you cans tore depends on the facilities that coem with the type of office you chose.

3) Basically an agency enhances team-work and groups players that all have differenty contacts and are willing to "share" these contacts with the rest of the team. This seriously increases your chances of solving cases. Also at an agency you're able to put away items in the locker and participate in treasure hunts.

I just have to disagree with R Anstett's one statement, agencies do not have to be involved with role playing on the message boards. Perhaps instead of the word 'should' he meant to use the word 'Can'. :)

When you are not in the same city as your agency you will not be able to use the locker or case files. You will be able to put gear into the locker but not take it out. You will be able to see and post on the message boards. If you want to see what an agency looks like check out

http://pachome2.pacific.net.sg/~simbp76/site/agency.htm

there you will see some pictures of what it looks like when you are in an agency and some pretty good descriptions too.

Hey guys, I thought I'd just stick this to the top, since I'm sure some of the questions answered are the kinds of thing new players ask all the time. And if people wanted to add to this with more Agency info it could all be found in the one place.

As Raven pointed out, no, agencies don't have to do role-playing, but it does add to a group's camaraderie and enjoyability. Most agencies will have some degree of role-playing, even if it's just leaving messages for each other on their private boards. Another thing that's optional for some agencies is hunting. Some agencies are big on treasure and Arch-Villain hunting, some aren't. Again, it's the group's choice. New detectives will find a varied mix of agencies, with differing philosophies and interests. The important thing, I think we all can agree, is that one should try and find a group that you LIKE. The rest will take care of itself. ;-)

So... we have clamored for months if not years about how there should be a foolproof way to keep unsubscribed players from trying to join agencies in their naivete, right?

Since Jojo never got his flashing neon sign, let me suggest a simple-ish solution... though it would take a little work on Ben's behalf.

I'm writing the AVL message board systems as we speak, so I am led to believe in my experience that this could be done fairly easily from a programming perspective, but...

Why don't we lock the post/reply features on the recruiting board so that only subscribed players can use them?

I realize this comes with problems, like unsubbed agency directors not being able to post about job openings and new palyers not able to publicly inquire about agency-related questions, but it's a thought. Thought I'd shoot it out there for some rhetoric.

With the new rules Admin proposed about limiting unsubbed detectcives activities in an agency this seems to be a decent idea. I would not want to block anyone from reading here, because that is one of the ways to encourage new players to subscribe, by seeing all the openings and possiblities.